Thumbthing

Today I was at the hospital to get more x-rays of my thumb and wrist to hopefully discover why the healing process is so slow. There was a new doctor this time, the fifth doctor so far, but apparently it's normal practice at the hospital to get whichever doctor can fit in a bit of time in their overly tight schedules. The new x-rays showed that, in addition to a ligament having been separated from my thumb and removing a piece of bone with it, my skiing accident also caused re-injury to one of the bones in the hand called the navicular bone. The translation from Swedish is simpler: it's the boat bone (båtben). Apparently I injured this bone a couple of decades ago - I sort of remember having to write left-handed for a month due to some injury. Since it was untreated, it never healed, and the cartilage that separates it from its neighbor no longer exists, making re-injury more likely. Apparently I can also expect arthritis in my coming years, if this hasn't already caused it to start now. The result of today's visit is that, instead of returning to work this Monday, it will be three more weeks at home, and therefore a few more blog entries can be expected. Nevertheless, I plan on getting my bicycle out soon and see how well I can ride using the gears and brakes on the left side only. And not actually grasping the handlebar on the right.